DRUGS worth £500,000 have been seized in a series of co-ordinated strikes across the region.

Police busted five DIY dope factories and recovered more than 2,500 cannabis plants in the raids.

Seven people, all of South East Asian origin, were arrested at the addresses, in South Shields, Gateshead and Middlesbrough.

The operation was staged by officers from Northumbria Police’s Total Policing Task Force and Cleveland Police’s Organised Crime Unit.

Supt Peter Farrell, of the Task Force, said: “We are working with Cleveland Police to target an organised crime group suspected of coordinating Vietnamese cannabis farmers in both force areas.

“We have already seen a massive reduction in the number of these illegal enterprises as a result of the enforcement action taken by Northumbria Police last year to rid Newcastle and surrounding areas of cannabis farms.

“And we won’t stop there. These raids demonstrate that we will take swift and decisive action to stem the latest rash of organised cannabis production and prevent the development of new farms.” The simultaneous swoops happened at two properties on Marshall Wallis Road, South Shields, where 500 plants were seized, and a flat on nearby Ocean Road, where 552 plants were recovered.

A house on Chesterwood Terrace, Pelaw, Gateshead, was also raided, where a two men, aged 21 and 23, and a woman, 39, were arrested and continue to help police with their enquiries.

In the Cleveland Police area, officers discovered farms at a house at Belle Vue Grove and a house at Marton Road, both Middlesbrough, and 1,500 plants were seized.

In South Shields, two men, aged 40 and 35, were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the production of cannabis, while in Teesside, a further two men, aged 22 and 16, were on suspicion of the same offence.

The plants recovered had the potential to yield drugs to the value of more than £500,000.